Originally Posted by
kendall
Grand Rapids is also a heavily money oriented city, the city rents bike lockers downtown, so it would not be unexpected for them to pass a law restricting 'on street' parking.
My building has two bike racks in one of the garages (three floors of covered garages, one floor of open air parking.). There's WAY more demand for bike parking than there is rack space available, so the overflow from the bike racks is enormous. I've thought of asking the building manager to put more bike racks in, but the thing that holds me back is bike parking is free now (compared to $125/month for cars), and I understand that they're trying to make money off every space available. If I ask for more bike space, I may get it, but at a price-- no more free bike parking-- so I'm not sure I want to upset that apple cart.
In Grand Rapids, it appears they've put in
paid bike parking, and there's a certain logic to that-- parking a car parking costs money, so why shouldn't bike parking? The answer to that question is because for public policy reasons, we want to promote bicycling, but if public policy is not the primary goal, charging for bike parking has a certain logic...